Chronos

Chronos is a Python package for fitting isochronal models to data.

Disclaimer: This package is still in development and should be used with care. Especially the Bayesian methods are prone to get stuck in local minima and all results should be thoroughly validated.

Installation

1. Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or higher
• uv package manager

Install uv using one of the following methods:

macOS / Linux (recommended):

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Windows:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Homebrew (macOS):

brew install uv

pip:

pip install uv

For more options, see the uv installation docs.

2. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/rottenstea/Chronos.git
cd Chronos

3. Create a virtual environment and install

uv venv
uv sync

This creates a .venv directory inside the project and installs Chronos along with all its dependencies.

4. Activate the virtual environment

macOS / Linux:

source .venv/bin/activate

Windows:

.venv\Scripts\activate

5. IDE Setup

VS Code

1. Open the Chronos folder in VS Code.
2. Install the Python extension if you haven't already.
3. Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux).
4. Select Python: Select Interpreter.
5. Choose the interpreter located at ./Chronos/.venv/bin/python.

PyCharm

1. Open the Chronos folder as a project.
2. Go to Settings > Project: Chronos > Python Interpreter.
3. Click Add Interpreter > Existing.
4. Select the interpreter at ./Chronos/.venv/bin/python.

Getting Started

Check out the Tutorials/ folder for example notebooks showing how to use Chronos.